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By Laura Heller

It’s time to let the old guy--Best Buy (BBY) founder and long-time CEO, Richard Schulze--put a good chunk of his $2 billion fortune on the line and take his battered big box chain private.

Yes, this is a minority view, and conventional wisdom would demand that Best Buy’s board bring in a brilliant outsider who can objectively assess the retailer’s troubled business and make bold decisions, unfettered by past involvement with the chain. That’s what the board appears to be doing, aided by search firm Spencer Stuart.

And certainly a Best Buy stock chart betrays no sign that a leveraged buyout, with a nice premium for stockholders, is in the works.

But here’s why the board’s course is wrong, in the view of this experienced retailing writer. First, the board’s duty is to stockholders and the surest and quickest way to get a bounce in Best Buy shares is to sell the company.

Thankfully, there appears to be a willing buyer with a substantial net worth--$2 billion or so, according to Forbes--and familiarity with the company. Sell the thing and the board’s unpleasant days are over.

The alternative would likely mean a far longer wait for a pop in Best Buy stock, and there’s also every chance a new management team would simply ride the thing into the side of the mountain.

Amazon (AMZN), after all, is having Best Buy for lunch, and if there was an obvious way to stop that it would already have been tried at Best Buy and other retailers besieged by the online beast.

Would the board let Best Buy go for a 20% premium? If the lawyers would let them, they would, because the alternative is to potentially preside over the chain’s continuing decline.

Schulze, 71, would have to scrape up close to $10 billion--Best Buy’s current market cap is shy of $8 billion--and a hefty credit agreement. It’s not the ideal time for a mega-deal, given banks’ reluctance to take risks and private equity investors equal caution. But on the plus side, on a historical basis, looking at its share price and its P/E ratio, Best Buy is cheap.

But what of the employees, you say, and what of the future of the company? Should is be gambled on a debt-fueled takeover?

Well, first off, let’s examine the alternative. The retailing industry is notable for producing a dearth of executive talent. That’s why, when trouble hits, boards tend to turn to CFO-types, looking for cost-cutting and stability. There are certainly plenty of green eyeshade types who can keep the books in order and wait for Jeff Bezos to take away Best Buy’s last customers.